Hope
by Kinzupa
Summary: I can't sympathize with anyone, I can't trust anyone, and I don't hope for anything. But that's all hidden beneath my near perfect "normal" and "cheery" persona. You'd be this way too...if you had to go through what I've been living through.
1. Chapter 1

"Hope" is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul

And sings the song without the words

And never stops at all

And sweetest in the gale is heard

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm

I've heard it in the chilliest land

And on the strangest Sea

Yet never in Extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

(page break)

"Some day, you'll face someone who can cancel out this terror and suffering that you've caused…that will be the day that my village will get revenge." The dying man said, coughing out blood.

"There's no such person." I said with certainty and a small grin.

"What? Of course there is. Where there's evil, there must also be good."

"That's true in some situations, but in order for someone to balance _me_ out, they'd have to bring the dead back to life, and I hate to ruin it for you, but once you're dead, you're dead. Game Over. That goes for everyone, including me."

"Don't worry. There'll be someone…out there…" He said, with his final breath, and he finally closed his eyes for the last time. Unlike the other villagers, he struggled as best he could to stay alive, but the others died right after the first stab. He struggled tooth and nail to stay conscious, but in the end, he died just like everyone else. Just like every weak person should. I turned to fly back to base and report to the leader now that my mission was completed.

(page break)

"Did you fulfill your mission?" The leader said.

"Yes sir!" I said with a smile and an exaggerated salute.

"Good. Your next mission will be a month from now. You may do whatever you please until I contact you."

"Yes sir! I'll be leaving then!" I said, practically skipping out of the room. It was a long time since I've had much time off, let alone a month! Maybe it's because the organization is busy training more agents. Last I've heard, a bunch of the lower ranking agents were being killed by another group. When they were sent off on a mission, the organization would get a parcel back with their head. Perhaps he was giving me this time off so they could remedy the situation before sending their best agent off on another mission. _It would suck for them to loose me after everything they put into training me._ I mused to myself. "Those were the good days."

(page break)

"You will be a part of this organization from now on." The leader said while standing on the corpses of my parents and older sibling.

"No!" I screamed, and I began flying away when all of a sudden, a net caught my wings and I fell to the ground. Without being able to fly, I clawed at the ground in a feeble attempt to get away.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice in this matter." He said, and I began sobbing uncontrollably. Then, I felt the net pulling up off the ground and into a cage which some other person carried into a small airship. I was then transferred to what looked like a medical ward, but I was handcuffed to the bed so that I couldn't get away, and a couple doctors were taking care of my smaller wounds, and also checking for wounds on my wings after I was netted.

"Leave me alone!" I sobbed.

"Don't worry. This organization will take good care of you. They'll make you strong, and you won't be experimented on. Plus, if you get really strong, you'll be able to go and travel on missions and whatnot." One of the doctors said.

"I don't care. I want to go home." I said.

"That's fine, this is your new home. You'll be safe here, and all the agents that work in this organization will be like your new family." The other doctor said. I thought for a moment.

"You promise?" I asked.

"Of course!" They both said almost simultaneously.

"Okay then! Will you call me Kikua?" I asked.

"Oh, don't worry. There's no need for names here. You can forget your old one." They said.

"But—"

"Just forget your old name. It doesn't mean anything around here. Maybe the leader will give you a new name later on."

(page break)

"Do you understand the basics now?" My teacher asked. We were studying Nen. Apparently, I knew what it was in the general sense before I officially learned about it, but I didn't know it was called "Nen."

"Yup! Can I try my Hatsu now?" I asked. Since I was already in a state of Zetsu and I knew Ten, Gyo, and En, I wanted to discover my Hatsu.

"First, let's test for your affinity." He said, "You do remember the classes right?"

"Of course! There's Enhancers, Transmuters, Manipulators, Emitters, Conjurers, and Specialists, right?" I asked.

"Good job! Now, just run your Nen through this cup." He set a wine glass with water and a leaf on the table. I did as I was told and I placed my hands on both sides of the cup then concentrated my aura between them. After a few seconds, the leaf changed to a blue color and then morphed into a flower. "Congratulations! You're a specialist! And it looks like you might be able to transform things. Not exactly conjure up items, but change them. Maybe on your own body since you have wings and everything." He said with a grin.

"Cool!" I said, then I focused my Nen in my hands, and I tried to think of turning my nails into claws, and changing the top part of my hand and forearm into hard metal. Nothing happened at first, so I got a little frustrated and bit my lip a little. Once the blood started to flow, my skin changed into extremely hard material, and my fingers turned to razor sharp claws. "Look Sensei! I did it!" I ran to give him a hug.

"No no no, transform back firs—" He rambled and stumbled away until I made it to him, and I accidentally cut a couple parts out of his sides out, and he began to bleed out. He started to collapse onto his knees, and fell to one side with his mouth moving, trying to say something, and his eyes wide open as if he'd seen a ghost.

"Sensei?" I asked. Before I knew it, a bunch of the agents outside of my room came running in rambling about things I didn't understand and they picked up Sensei's body and carried him out of my room, and leaving me very confused and standing in the middle of the room. Then, another, larger man came in through my doorway, and knelt down to eye level with me.

"Do you understand what just happened?" He asked.

"Sort of. I just killed him, right? With my Transformation?" I answered while looking down at my now red claws.

"Good. That helps while explaining this situation then. In short, you have a natural gift for killing, and so you've been chosen to receive special training in order to become one of this organization's field agents. As of today, your kill count is 1. During your training, once that number grows into the double digits, you will be allowed to spar with whomever you choose until your kill count reaches 24. Then, you will be given official missions, most likely assassinations for which you will report directly to the leader. Did you understand everything?"

"Yeah"

"Good. Your training will start tomorrow." He said, then got up and left out the door he came in through.

(page break)

"You will do five hundred sit ups, five hundred push ups, and a ten mile run everyday for the next few days." The scary trainer guy said.

"Okay. Am I allowed to use my Nen?" I asked.

"Yes. You may complete them however you choose, but you must complete the training before you leave for lunch. After lunch, you will have a thousand kicks, a thousand punches, and a sparring match with a partner."

"Okay. I'll get started then." I said, and I bit my finger enough to bleed, then I focused my Nen in my stomach and transformed the muscles there so that they would become more efficient, consumed less oxygen, and leaner so that I could finish all the sit ups as quickly as possible. I also changed the muscles in my arms and legs the same way. I also focused some nen in my lungs so that they could enlarge themselves in order to complete the ten mile run easily, and all the muscles in my body could be oxidized with less effort. Once I was done, I lied down on my back, and completed the five hundred sit ups with ease, then the pushups were even easier, but my hands got a little bruised. Then, when I was about to take off to complete the ten mile run, my instructor stopped me.

"Why is it easy?" He said with an incredulous look on his face.

"You said I could use my Nen, so I transformed the muscles in my body so that they could do each task quickly and efficiently." I answered.

"Okay then…let's just skip to your fight training. Do you know how to fight?" He asked.

"No, but I can probably learn from example."

"Then you will be having a sparring match against me." He said, and his face became very intense. Not scary, persay, but overall, he became very focused, and he activated his own Nen. I jumped a few paces back, bit my finger, and activated my own nen, creating my metal claws and also changing my legs to those of a deer to increase speed, and also adding light but strong material to my skin over my important organs to prevent any critical injuries. I also strengthened the contour feathers on my wings to turn them into light shields to block any blunt hits…it probably wouldn't protect too well against a sharp edge, but it would at least prevent hits from a strong punch or kick. My transformation was done within ten seconds. As soon as I was done, he ran straight towards me. As soon as I was about to dodge, he seemed to disappear, but he reappeared right in front of me, and I only had enough time to move my wings to block his hit, but I couldn't plan a counterattack in that short time, so started sliding back. Once I opened my wings, he'd disappeared again, and this time, he appeared next to me where my side was not covered by my wings. I sensed him in time and I unfurled my right wing fast enough that I could push him away and avoid his hit.

"Your reactions are good, but you can't win if all you do is defend."

"I'll try." I said, and I rushed at him. I moved my wings out of the way so I could attack, but they were ready if he were to aim a hit at me. As I was rushing him, I saw his legs tense up as he was about to dodge, so I followed the direction his body was aiming, and I blinked over to his next destination and landed a solid hit against his chin, causing him to mess up his equilibrium. He stumbled back, and I jumped a pace back in case he did have a counter attack, but he continued to stumble until he fell onto his butt.

"You got a good punch there." He said, his body waving back and forth since he couldn't get his bearings. "But what are you waiting for?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your kill count. Don't you have to get to the double digits before you can choose your sparring partner?"

"Yeah, but I don't feel like killing you, I already killed my last teacher."

"Just kill me already. This is how this organization works, and the more kills you get, the higher your ranking is. Given, you're already ranked pretty high since you have wings and you've killed your own teacher, but whenever people spar in this organization, it's expected that you kill the loser. If you don't kill me, I'm sure someone else will if they need to increase their ranking."

"But I thought this organization would be my new family?"

"This is how this family operates. Don't worry, I've been ready to die. Just get it over with already." He said, and he lied down on his back and closed his eyes. I walked over to him.

"Okay then. Maybe I'll see you again?" I said, starting to tear up. I was kneeling next to him now, and in a final attempt to keep fighting, he swung at me, but I saw his arm muscles tighten up, so I jumped out of his way, and his arm fell limp. I walked over to him again, but I stayed out of his arm's reach. He smiled.

"Yeah. It was fun fighting you. You're a natural." I smiled back, but his eyes were still closed, so he didn't see it.

"Thanks. It was fun fighting you too, so I won't say sorry, but I will make it quick." I said, and I quickly grabbed his heart using my sharp claws and I tore it out of his chest. He didn't even flinch, he just coughed up a little blood, got a little pale, then a faint sigh was his last movement before I knew he was completely dead. Killing him was different from killing my teacher since my teacher just fed me information and told me how to do stuff, but I had just met this guy and it was fun while my training lasted. He showed me how bodies moved when they fought instead of just telling me, and it was fun figuring out these things.

"Congratulations." Someone from behind me said. I got startled so I jumped away and turned to face the stranger. It was the leader. I recognized him from when he forced me to join the organization. I didn't hate him since he didn't do anything directly to me, and I was living pretty comfortably, and they didn't experiment me, just as the first doctors said. "I see you're fitting in nicely into this 'family' we've established here." He said, gesturing to my now dead instructor.

"Yup. Now what?" I asked.

"Well, seeing that you already know how to fight, I'll start making arrangements for your placement into the field agents, but I need you to kill at least ten more people before I know you won't hesitate when you're given a mission.

"Yes sir." I said with an exaggerated salute.

"Good. You may choose who you fight and you can choose who you're willing to kill, but keep in mind that if you lose, your opponent probably won't hesitate to kill you, so you might as well kill whoever you beat. And you must reach ten kills before I can give you your first mission."

"Ok, when can I start?"

"Now." He said, and I looked around for any opponents. My former instructor would be happy if I became a field agent. Before lunch.

I ran around the organization's grounds, and I fought a few people. Those fights all ended the same way. They were all perfectly fine with me killing them, but I still teared up as I killed them. Then, I fought a few more people, and since my kill count was growing, people started asking to fight me, and they were stronger. They also weren't as willing to die, so I managed to harden my heart. If they had a problem with me killing them, I figured they would have no qualms killing me, and if I let them live, their pride would drive them to kill me, so I had no choice. I killed all of them. By the time I killed the tenth person, my claws seemed to be stained red, and my transformed legs were starting to ache, but it was bearable, and I could probably take on another ten people, so I flew around looking for the leader. I didn't change my form in case someone else wanted to challenge me, but I wanted to make my dead instructor proud, so I flew around everywhere looking for the leader until I saw a tall building with a penthouse at the top, and I flew over to it. I saw a balcony too, and the door to the penthouse was open, so I flew right in only to see the leader sitting calmly at his desk.

"You can change back and wash your hands in the sink over there." He gestured to a sink at the other side of the room. "You're getting blood everywhere you know." He said, and I looked down to see that the blood from my last opponent hadn't completely dried on my hands yet, so the blood was dripping onto the wood flooring of the leader's room.

"Oh! I'm sorry about that." I said, and I walked over to the sink while transforming back to my normal form. I washed my hands thoroughly, making sure to get the dried blood out from underneath my fingernails, and I used around five pumps of soap to try and get the smell out of my skin, but it felt like it was still there. I don't feel guilty, I just felt an endless pit of emptiness, and I completely understood my actions, but I felt like my brain was purposely skipping over the feeling of emotions every time I thought about it. Once I was done, I shut off the water and watched the water go down the drain along with a few streaks of red. Then I turned around and walked over to where the leader was still sitting, but he now had a laptop and was reading something that he was very focused on.

"Done." He said, and he clicked a few keys then looked up from the screen at me, "I just finished entering you as an official field agent. Congratulations. And I also just received your first mission. It's an assassination. Are you ready?" He asked.

"Yup!" I said. I was happy. I did everything my instructor said, and became a field agent, before lunch. "Can I go eat lunch before I leave though?"

"Of course. Your first mission is simple. I just need you to track down a drug dealer then dispose of him. Make sure you don't get recognized, so either cover your face, or kill all those that see you.

"Ok. Where do I go?"

"He's in the nearby city, you should be able to see it. Your target works independently, so you don't have to worry about many witnesses, and he is located on the fifth street. I'm sure you'll be able to find him quickly and dispose of him even before dinner." The leader grinned.

"Thanks! I'll be off! I said, and I jumped out the window and glided down to the canteen to get some food before I left.

As I left, I realized I didn't really know the area around the organization at all. It was in the middle of a forest, so it was well hidden within the foliage of the trees. I also saw the city which would only be a few minute flight, so I bit my finger and changed into a bird so that none of that city's inhabitants would see a flying human. A few minutes passed, and I was circling over the city, and sure enough, on the fifth street, there was one really busted up building, so I dove into one of the alleys on that street, transformed into my human form, and covered up my wings with a blanket I stole from one of the clothing lines I flew over. I walked into the building, and I saw that there was a guy sitting on a couch smoking weed while counting money.

"Who are you? You don't look like you're from here." He said casually.

"I'm not, but I heard you got some goods, so I decided to pop by." I said.

"Goods? Yeah, I got some. How much you want?"

"Not much, I don't want to pay _an arm and a leg_ for them if you know what I mean." I said with a small laugh and a small incision was made on my wrist with a knife he had on the table near the entrance.

"What?" As soon as he looked at me from his stack of cash, I transformed my right hand into a claw and I snatched his heart from his chest. With his last words, he said, "You're from that organization, aren't you? Can't believe they'd use a puny girl to do me in." Once he was done, his body flopped to the ground and the blood that was no longer being pumped to the rest of his body just seeped out of the wound in his chest onto the tiled floor of the room. I shredded his heart, then wiped my claw on the blanket I was covering my wings with, then transformed into a bird again since my incision was still bleeding and flew out of the city and back to the leader's room. He was still there.

"I figured you would be finished immediately, so I decided to find you another mission." My days continued like that, with my doing maybe two assassinations every day. Apparently, our organization was known for doing assassinations, and we got all the assassinations that another family didn't want, I think they were known as the Zoldycks, so we got a lot of requests from random clients across the world. Since I could fly, I got the bulk of the assignments, so my ranking rose and rose, until I finally became the #1 field agent in this organization. Apparently, number one still doesn't tell me what organization I'm in…according to the leader, in case I got captured, it's safest that I don't know the name of the organization or his own name, and if I got known for killing outside of the world, the name they called me is the name I'd use. Since I was quick at killing my targets, no one knew who I was. One person saw my shadow as I left a scene, but they didn't give me a name. They just called me, "The Angel of Death."

A month or so has passed, my kill count was around a hundred, and the leader just sent a note for me to go to his office right away, so I flew over to the penthouse and let myself into his office.

"Hey leader! What can I do for you?" I asked with a comical curtsy.

"It's more of what I need you not to do. I need you to take a month off from assassinations. There's a small issue going on. Once it's resolved, I'll contact you again. Until then, you may do whatever you please."

"Ok, see ya later!" I said, and I drifted out of the penthouse and jumped out of the building. "Finallyy" I breathed out as I continued to fall. A few meters from the ground, I opened my wings and glided up and out of the organization's grounds over to a deserted building I decided to make my temporary home away from the base. I flew right into my makeshift bedroom with my worn in couch and my few supplies and necessities. I flopped down onto it, and heaved a sigh of relief. "I thought he would make me go on another killing spree. Those take a lot out of you, ya know?" I said to myself. _So much has changed since I was normal…and didn't kill people for an organization I didn't even know a lot about. Before, I actually had value for human life._ I laughed out loud after that. No one could understand me, and I probably could never sympathize with another person since I started this…profession. I can't trust anyone outside of the organization, I don't hope for anything except for a day off, and I don't even have a name, but this is all hidden beneath my near perfect "normal" and "cheery" persona.


	2. Chapter 2

_I wonder where the Hunter Exam is this year…it should be starting in a few days, so maybe I'll head to the pub today, figure out where the exam is by tomorrow and leave by tomorrow as well…_

"Yup! That's the plan!" I said jumping from the couch I was sitting on in the deserted building. "Lemme just get ready for now, then I'll start gathering my information on the exam site." I grabbed my small bag which had the small phone the leader used to contact me, a couple protein bars, a spare knife, and a spare change of clothes in case I got blood on the clothes I was wearing. Then I put my bag on around my wings so that it was between my shoulder blades. Next, I grabbed my cloak which was large enough to cover my entire body including my wings, and it was baggy enough that the slits which would allow my wings to flap were concealed within the folds. It even had a hood to cover my head during my missions. I threw the cloak on over my wings and my bag, but I didn't put my hood on since there wasn't any reason for me to hide right now. _Time to go! I can even get another knife on my way there! And, I can get some good food!_ I started getting excited as I unfurled my wings and jumped out the window of the building.

As I was gliding over Zaban City, I realized that I didn't have any money, so I swooped down into a dark alley between buildings, and curled my wings back into the cloak so I wouldn't draw too much attention to myself, and began walking into the crowd. As I was passing the clueless people, my hands darted into the unsuspecting pockets of their jackets and quickly snatching their wallets. Then, I slinked back into the alley and looked at how much money I'd accumulated. It was around a thousand Jenny… _That should be enough for now. It'll get me an airship ticket if I need it, and a good amount of food._ Then, I ditched the wallets and stuffed the money into the pockets of my shorts, and I merged back into the crowd until I saw a pub. I wormed my way into the pub and sat down at the bar.

"Hey mister, can I get a glass of orange juice?" I asked the bartender.

"Sure, little lady. Can I get you anything else?" He responded.

"Yes, do you have any information on the hunter exam site?" I asked casually.

"Nope, I haven't heard anything about that for a while. It seems like a bunch of the candidates are all veterans, so they don't need bartenders like me for information." He said.

"Ok then. How much?" I ask, gesturing to my now empty glass of orange juice.

"It's on the house."

"Thanks! Maybe I'll come by and visit some other time." I said jumping off my chair and heading back outside. As I was walking through the crowd, I heard something strange, so I listened even more carefully.

"Yeah, I doubt there'll be many rookies this year. We've gotten rid of most of the Navigators, so many won't even be able to find the exam site!" I heard a couple of men talking.

"Yup, we're passing this year for sure!" Another man said.

"Well, if a rookie does make it through, I still won't be surprised. It's pretty easy this year, all you have to do is ask for the backroom and order a steak combo that opens your eyes to the light, grilled over a low flame until cooked. And it's in that run-down steak shop next to the huge building over there." The first guy said. _Well, you made my job easier. Thanks._ I thought to myself, and made my way towards the huge building at the center of the city. Just as they'd said, I saw a run-down steak shop, so I walked in and I saw the chef cooking food for the couple of customers he had. Before he could even welcome me, I asked for the back room, after he looked a little startled, he asked, "What would you like to eat?"

"I'd like the steak combo that opens your eyes to the light. Also, could you grill it over a low flame until it's cooked?" I asked.

"Sure, you can wait in the back room around the corner over there."

"Thanks!" I said, then practically bounced my way over to the room. Once I got in, I sat down in one of the chairs and made myself comfortable. After the initial shock of feeling the room moving, I realized I wasn't going to get a steak, and I realized that I was basically at the exam site already, so I stole the few knives that were placed at the table, wrapped their blades in the cloth they were on, then stuffed a couple in my shorts but kept one out and in my hand in case there was a surprise once I actually got to the exam site. In a couple short minutes, the room stopped moving, so I got up and opened the door. Once the door was opened, I was surprised by the space of the room I saw, but it was incredibly bland and there were maybe a few hundred people there already, so I just walked right in when I was surprised by a little green bean which I almost stabbed with my knife until I realized he was offering me a numbered tag with the number 324 on it.

"Thanks." I said, and I pinned the number onto my shirt underneath the cloak. As I was walking towards a wall, I saw a very strange looking clown guy, and he looked a little too relaxed in this crowd filled with people who were all very visibly tense, so I decided to walk over to him. When I got to where he was, he wasn't paying much attention to me, so I activated my Ten, and he looked down to where I stood.

"Hey, this isn't your first time taking this exam is it?" I asked.

"No, it is not. How did you know?" He asked a little creepily.

"You're too relaxed, but I wanted to ask why. You don't seem that weak to me."

"I may or may not have attacked an examiner last year, so they kicked me out."

"Oh, I see."

"Also, what is your name?" The creepy guy asked.

"It's common courtesy to say your name first before you ask someone else's."

"Of course! I'm sorry, my name is Hisoka."

"Nice to meet you Hisoka, but I have no name." I said giggling. When I looked up, his face was very confused.

"You have no name?"

"Nope! Maybe I should think of one soon…what are they supposed to put down on my hunter liscense?" I said giggling again.

"Then I'll call you Mumei."

"Mumei? That isn't very original, but I'll take it."

"You said you had no name, so I simply called you as you were."

"I don't mind. You can call me…Mei!" I said, happy now.

"Okay, Mei, nice to meet you. Now that I think about it, even that name fits you well."

"It sure does! Can I stick with you during this examination?" I asked him. He seemed to understand my thoughts.

"If you can keep up, then sure." I was happy, now that I'd found an ally, this examination would become much easier. I sat down, leaning against the wall, but just before I was about to pull out my knives to polish them, Hisoka spoke again, "Also, what are you hiding under the cloak?"

"Oh, nothing, just a small bag and a couple feathery things."

"You brought birds?" He asked getting a weird look on his face now.

"Nope, I'm not that strange." As I was turning to look at my knives, I poked one of my wings out from under the cloak just enough so he could see. But he didn't say anything as I thought he would, and he just seemed to nod in understanding that I was that strange, but not in the way that I would bring a couple birds with me to the hunter exam. A couple hours passed, and now my knives were completely polished and I managed to make a couple makeshift holsters using the cloths they were wrapped in previously, so I strapped all the knives to my thighs and the knife I brought with me from the building was now strapped to my forearm where it was easily accessible but also well concealed within my cloak.

"Gittacrakur, this is Mumei. Mei for short. Mei, this is Gittacrakur, one of my friends." Hisoka said gesturing to a very strange looking guy with pins sticking out from all over his body.

"Hello, nice to meet you." I said with a slight bow of the head, then I pulled my hood over my head to take a short nap before the exam started.

By now, there were now around four hundred applicants, so the exam should be starting soon. I lifted up my cloak to see Hisoka who was just standing around, shuffling his cards, when I heard someone bump into him. When I looked up, he had a very scary look on his face, but the guy just continued to walk without apologizing. As a result, I saw Hisoka take a few of his cards and dice the man's arms into cute little flower petals. It was amazing really, he diced the guy up so finely and so quickly that his flesh would just float to the ground in a fancy show of falling sakura flowers. I didn't hear what Hisoka said because I was too busy figuring out how Hisoka did it. For sure, he wouldn't use that in an actual fight since it had too many unnecessary movements, but it sure was cool since it wouldn't appear to a normal person that his arms and cards had moved at all.

"Hisoka, you gotta let me try out your cards when we're done with this exam." I said, getting really intrigued by his deck of cards.

"Sure, but these aren't anything special. You just have to know how to use them."

"Thanks!" I said, then I heard a rumbling, so I hopped up to my feet and saw that a wall was rising to show a very tall guy without a mouth and a really strange mustache standing there.

"Welcome to the hunter examination. If you wish to continue with the exam, follow me. If not, you may leave now through the elevator you came in through." The mustache guy said. When no one moved, he continued, "Very well then, this way." He turned on his heel, and began walking down the tunnel. He had very long legs, so his walking pace forced everyone to begin running. "By the way, my name is Satotz and I will be your examiner for the first phase." He added turning his head a little our way, but he continued running. I was running behind Hisoka and Gittacrakur, so I had a lot of room to run in since no one wanted to run near them for some reason...probably because of Hisoka's little show from before. We continued running, and my feet started to get sore, so I made a cut on my wrist using the knife attached to my forearm, and I activated my Nen to change my legs to resemble those of a deer. By doing this, I didn't have to keep my Nen activated and I could return to Zetsu, but my legs would stay the same until I wanted to change back. This also made it much easier for me to run, and the cloak still kept my legs hidden so no one knew what it was I did, although a couple with sharp noses turned my way due to the slight scent of blood.

After about four hours of running, there were stairs. _I hate stairs…at this point, I might as well just fly, I doubt many of these applicants will survive after this test in the shape they're in, and if they do survive, well, I can kill them._ "Hey, Hisoka, I'll see you at the end of the tunnel." I said, yelling up to the taller man just as we were starting to climb up the stairs. Before he could turn to respond, I unfurled my wings and with one strong downward push, I was in the air. All the applicants around me were very surprised, and a couple stopped after being surprised by the sudden appearance of wings. As soon as I was in the air, I reversed my legs back to their original form, and I continued flapping my wings up the stairs until I was flying just over Satotz. When I looked behind him, I realized a couple kids that might be around my age were running up the stairs with ease, one had black hair and the other had white hair, and they were staring at me with quite the surprised look… _oh wait, it's not normal to fly…yeah…that makes sense…_

"Hey, how old are you guys?" I asked.

"We're both twelve!" The one with black hair said.

"How can you fly?" The one with white hair said.

"Good question, I don't really know. I was born with these." I responded, "My name is Mumei by the way, what's your name?"

"My name is Gon! He's Killua!" The one with black hair said very cheerily.

"Nice to meet you! See you at the exit!" I said, slightly increasing my speed so that I was now ahead of them. "Hey Satotz, is it okay if I go ahead of you? Or do I _absolutely have_ to stay behind you?" I asked.

"If you can, you may, the exit isn't too far from here." He answered gesturing further ahead.

"Okay, thank you! I'll be going ahead!" I said, and I increased my speed once again so that I was now far ahead of the entire group including Satotz. A couple minutes later, and I saw a light up ahead, and I increased my speed just enough so that within the minute, I was now outside. After being temporarily blinded by the sudden light outside, I realized that there was a huge amount of fog outside, and I could barely see very far, so I stayed just inside the tunnel so that I was at the exit, but I was far enough inside that if something were to surprise me, it could only attack from the exit.

I sat there for about half an hour before Satotz and the two boys came up through the exit, and the fog was beginning to clear up. While Gon and Killua were arguing over who finished first, Hisoka and Gittacrakur made it outside, and they weren't showing signs of fatigue.

"You guys are monsters. I hate stairs." I said, pouting at Hisoka and Gittacrakur.

"I could say the same for you. No one else on this planet has wings." Hisoka said creepily. Gittacrakur gave me this really weird clattering sound…I don't really know how to interpret it.

"That's very true. Let me rephrase my previous statement." I cleared my throat, "You guys are just as monstrous as I am."

"Can't argue with that." Hisoka said veryyyy creepily. He even had this really pervy look on his face.

"Okay then." As I was turning to ask Satotz what was next, a beat up guy came around the corner "warning" us about following the wrong examiner and that we were gonna die like the monkey did, but I was too focused on gauging his strength…from my perspective, he wasn't an examiner, he was far too weak, and if a monkey was stronger than the examiner who managed to become a hunter, I'd rather follow the monkey since it's stronger, but that's just my opinion. As I was about to explain that the beat up guy wasn't the examiner, Hisoka threw his cards at both of them, Satotz and the guy, but Satotz caught the cards while the other fell over dead. _I mean, I guess that's one way to explain that the beat up guy was too weak to be an examiner._

"You see, if the examiner were to hold the title that we seek of Hunter, he would have been able to block that simple attack with ease as he did." Hisoka explained to the rest of the applicants. After they all nodded in understanding, we proceeded with the examination. Apparently, the tunnel wasn't all of phase one. And so, we began running again, this time with everyone trying to cluster around Satotz since he knew the way, but I was just flying above, keeping one eye on Satotz to make sure that I was following the right guy, but at the same time, I was keeping an eye out for the phase two site so that I could just get there earlier and scout out the area before everyone else. Also, if I could find the phase two site, I could even play with some of the other applicants before the next phase if Hisoka doesn't kill half of them. When I was about to scout out some of the applicants, I saw Hisoka disappear, and I was about to go and make sure he didn't get lost, but then I realized that he and Gittacrakur were both holding similar looking devices with a map on it, and I also saw that Gittacrakur was following close behind Satotz, so Hisoka wouldn't be getting lost as long as Gittacrakur didn't fall behind which I knew he wouldn't, and so, I continued scouting out the Numere Wetlands to look for a clearing that the next phase might be. I continued following Satotz for about ten more minutes while looking for the next site, but I deduced that the fog was too thick for me to find the next phase from the air, so I dropped a little lower to follow Gittacrakur and Satotz through the fog. Conveniently, the flaps of my wings helped clear some of the fog from the head of the group, so I could follow them easily this way.

After a long while of flying over the running group, I saw that Hisoka was carrying a rather large man on his shoulder, and he had a small bruise on his cheek… _strange, I doubt anyone could be able to land a hit on him based on their physical abilities, but maybe I underestimated someone…No matter, I'll just ask him later._ I thought to myself. I continued following Satotz until I saw that there was a large wall ahead, and a small clearing just in front of it. I figured that he'd want us to stop there, so I sped up my pace so I arrived a little before he did, and I sat down at the base of one of the trees so that I would rest a little before the first phase ended. I did take a small nap, but I was awoken by the chattering of Gittacrakur next to me, so I lifted my head up to see a lady with six ponytails, and a large man sitting just beyond the wall that was previously closed.


End file.
